US Postal Service (USPS) warns of risks to mail-in votes

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Daily US Times:The US Postal Service (USPS) has warned risks to mail-in votes, saying millions of mail-in votes may not arrive in time to be counted on the presidential election day, 3 November.

The agency said in letters to states across the country last month that “certain deadlines… are incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards”.

Critics have blamed the new USPS head – appointed by President Trump and a loyal supporter of him – for a slowdown in deliveries.

Due to coronavirus pandemic, a record number of people are expected to vote by mail.

But Mr Trump said on Thursday that he was blocking additional funding for the USPS, which has long been in financial trouble, carrying about $160bn (£122bn) in debt, to help with election issues, because he opposed mail-in voting.

The US President has repeatedly said mail-in ballots will lead to voting fraud – and give a boost to his rival Democrat Joe Biden. Experts say the mail-in voting system – which is used by Mr Trump himself and by the American military – is safe from tampering.

Former President Barack Obama strongly criticised what he described as Mr Trump’s “attempts to undermine the election”, writing on Twitter that the current administration was “more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus”.

Congress’s two top Democrats – Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer – called on Mr Trump to stop his “assault” on the postal service and “allow the 2020 election to proceed without his sabotage tactics”.

Their comments come as a poll by Axios/ Survey Monkey found that three quarters of Republican voters plan to vote in person, but more than half of Democratic voters plan to use a mail vote.

Private delivery services UPS and FedEx have both rejected calls to help ease the pressure on the postal agency.

The USPS, meanwhile, has reportedly begun removing mail sorting machines – many of which would normally be used to process ballots during the election – according to Vice.

What did the USPS say?

The USPS sent letters to states across the US in July, warning that it could not guarantee that all votes cast by mail would arrive on time to be counted. At least 15 states have received a letter, according to NBC News.

In a letter to Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, the US Postal Service said mail-in ballots requested one week before the 3 November election – allowed under the state’s election laws – may not reach their destination on time because the state’s deadlines are too tight for its “delivery standards”.

Thomas Marshall, the USPS General Counsel, said a “mismatch” between Pennsylvania’s laws and the mail system’s delivery capabilities “creates a risk that ballots requested near the deadline under state law will not be returned by mail in time to be counted under your laws as we understand them”.

On Thursday, the letter was made public as Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar asked the state’s supreme court to allow ballots to be counted as long as they were received up to three days after the election. according to current rules, votes are discarded if they are received after election day.

Pennsylvania is a battleground state. Mr Trump won the state by less than 1% in the 2016 election. Other battleground states, including Michigan and Florida, also received letters, according to US media reports.

On Friday, the Democratic governor in Pennsylvania’s neighbouring New Jersey announced that the state would pre-emptively send ballots to every registered voter in the state. The process of sending out ballots is known as universal mail-in voting, and has been adopted in nine other US states.

What’s the background?

Critics say changes made by the new Trump appointee Postmaster General Louis DeJoy – who is also a major Republican donor – like clamping down on overtime and halting late delivery trips have led to an increase in mail waiting times.

But while interviewing with Fox News, Mr Trump told he was blocking additional funding for the financially troubled agency, because he opposes mail-in voting.

He said: “Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.”.

“Now, if we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting, they just can’t have it,” the President added.

Amid the funding controversy, the 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers union on Friday endorsed Democratic candidate Mr Biden, warning that the “very survival” of the USPS was at stake.

Mr Trump’s campaign has not yet responded to the move.

This is not the first time American voters facing this. The entire US presidential election result on the year of 2000 was decided by a few hundred contested votes in the state of Florida, after ballots were scrutinised and sometimes rejected, and the process dragged on for weeks.

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